But would be completely illogical!
Actually, militia has the following uses:
1. Patrolling
2. Defending/besieging forts
3. Absorbing missile & spell fire instead of your good troops
All this they do cheaper than normal troops. And against SCs (or strong sacreds) they have the same survivability!
Of course, if you use them on offense, they eat the same supplies as good units while providing less utility (as the latter can actually fight!). But... militia isn't normally used on offense.

...Halberd is the offensive polearm. The impact of a twohanded battleaxe with reach 4. Att 1, Def -1.

Not sure about defense penalty. From my own almost 20 years of on-and-off experience, I would not say that it is more difficult to defend with halberd. Stats you offer are probably more close to those of a bardiche/Lochaber axe, which are heavier with broad blade. Halberd's narrower blade + hook may be better depicted with stats like those you propose for warhammer, i.e., slightly lower damage, but armor-piercing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...Slings have damage 7, range 25 and acc -1. (2 points from the rather high damage were given to accuracy and range, if you will.)

Well, here I have no actual experience, but sources from antiquity often mentioned sling bullets punching through armor and completely entering body. At the same time it always took much time to learn to actually hit things with them. I'd say that high damage with low accuracy are valid enough here. If we could make them resistant to wind...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...The japanese weapons of Jomon and it's earlier incarnations had very strange values. I can't blame Kristoffer too much, since looking for information on them one is swamped by orientalist hype. We made a decision to go with closest european equivalents, adjust for credible research results and make the weapons "offensive" instead of defensive where appropriate to reflect different approach to martial arts. For instance the katana's attack and defence values are those of the greatsword, but swapped around. Where the greatsword has att +1, def +2, the Katana has att +2, def +1. Damages were are based on european equivalents, with the +2 added for being used two handed.

Good idea in general. Though katana as such is an one-handed weapon. Maybe call 2h-version no-dachi, as appropriate?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...The bamboo longbow called Yumi was created for the samurai archers to differentiate from the generic longbows. As in real life it has less damage than the Welsh longbow, but to compensate we upped it's attack to +2. Considering the samurai archers have a prec of 11 already, this makes them excellent at long range archery.

Well, actually they were poor at long range. English longbowmen tournaments started at 200 yds, while Japanese ones were performed at 130 iirc. Mongols and Turks had record aimed shots at over 500.
If you don't want to completely revamp bows (and I understand this as quite thankless task!), I'd offer to leave samurai archers with longbows. Otherwise, their bows should probably have both less damage and range than Welsh longbow, maybe higher accuracy (at short range) and - especially - provide less penalty while shooting from saddle! After all, this was the reason they were asymmetrical. (as this can't be made a weapon property in-game, mounted samurai should retain precision of 10 or at least 9).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...The japanese spear (or Yari) inspired me to fix something that has long bothered me. Dominions has a generous handful of troops with spear and no shield, but they all use the normal one handed spear stats. As yari is just japanese for spear, I decided to use it in fixing this. I turned the Yari into "War Spear", which is just a more atmospheric way of saying a-spear-used-with-both-hands. With the usual logic this ends up being a polearm with dam 5, att 1 and len 4.

Actually, the main bonus of a two-handed spear I'd name a very good parrying ability, coupled with a decent attacking one. So some 2 defense is probably in order, with maybe slightly lower damage. After all, main attack with spear is a thrust, and it isn't so heavy as to being difficult to reach good speed with just one hand...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...The shuriken is capped at one point of damage, and can't take anybody's head off anymore. Still quite efficient with the strong poison.

Actually, I'd just remove poison. It can punch through a skull, but leaves wide-open wounds, from which any poison is quickly washed out with blood.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...
Items that create magic gems out of thin air have been removed or turned into unique artifacts. Forge of the Ancients has been removed from play, as has the Hammer of the Forge Lord and Dwarven Hammers. Aside from the few gods and units that have built in forge bonuses, magic items will cost the full amount.

As I already said to CBM authors, to remove a whole range of strategy paths from the game is to castrate that game.
Of course, you are free to do so in your mod - as I am free to just comment this out as soon as I save it on my computer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...Frost Brand cost 10 water gems, to be better matched with fire brand.

Actually, it's a wrong decision. Note that in this game, undead are both the most common and easy-to-obtain chuff and the most common thugs/SCs. And they are (almost) all immune to cold. So while Frost brand is (almost) as good as Fire against human chaff, it is significantly weaker mid-game. So it should either remain cheaper, or become obtainable earlier. But at Construction 2 I think it would be too good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...Sanquine dowsing rod is now unique, so blood income will require more honest work as well (and there won't be the pressure on blood nations to drive for construction).

See above

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...Werewolves now have 2 claw attacks and a bite, and they don't have weapon or head gear slots. I hope I found every werewolf.

I think not necessary. Actually, without weapon slots they become almost useless. And generic werewolves are weak enough already.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...Dragons have 2 claw attacks and a bite.

Again not necessary. They are good enough against independents at start, while after some research is reached, they become more of mobile artillery in any case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...The Kindly Ones, The Damned Admiral and Lord of the Hunt have no item slots. Especially the Lord and the Erinyas suffered from stupid effects when they happened to pick up some gear after a fight, often rendering them practically harmless and easy to kill (see what happens when one of the Kindly Ones finds a skull amulet).

Good workaround.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...All samurai have have a gold cost of 11 to reflect their skills and morale as veteran troops (att 10, def 11, Mor 11). The prec has been brought down to 10 on non archer samurai for neatness (no actual game effect).

Reasonable. Though I'd leave precision as is - they are trained, they just don't have bows!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...Samurai cavalry prec brought to 8 as they are mounted.

As I said, it is what their bows are good for - leave them good firepower!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adept

...Hatamoto and Mounted Daimyo get standards (at 6 and 10), as a nod towards the banners in their graphics, and to add flavour.

Reasonable, too.

Sorry if I repeated critics on something that has already been fixed - I have no time now for reading the whole thread.
Thank you for an idea and realization!

Also, what do you think on pikes? In my Tilea mod (in progress) I made pikemen a composite unit with 2 #secondform's - so in first form we have 6 effective pikemen per square, then less until we get a single pikeman with normal human size. This is a workaround, however. But I don't see how else we can keep pike both effective and (relatively) realistic. Maybe damage bonus vs larger opponents?

As I already said to CBM authors, to remove a whole range of strategy paths from the game is to castrate that game.
Of course, you are free to do so in your mod - as I am free to just comment this out as soon as I save it on my computer.

And as people explained to death, having certain options be so good that the only way to play is to use those options is actually something that reduces the options in the game. That reason, and every game turning out the same in the late end game was the reason gem generators have been removed.

"So, you have a blood nation? Well, I have a wish clamming nation. ARMAGEDDON x10. Right. Now you have no blood nation any more."

Have fun gathering 200+ pearls from all the random commanders with clams you have each turn.